My Cancer Journey
March 28th 2023 On the way to the hospital yesterday, I was concerned that I might not make the whole 2-hour trip. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the freeway and we were held up for an extra half hour.
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In April 2022, I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. This blog is an account of my cancer journey. I hope that it will be a help to others who are on a cancer journey and also as a tool for those needing to keep a check on their bladder health.
March 28th 2023 On the way to the hospital yesterday, I was concerned that I might not make the whole 2-hour trip. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the freeway and we were held up for an extra half hour.
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Cystoscopy and TURBT re-scheduled for today.Procedure went well this time and I stayed overnight for a bladder irrigation.The irrigation was extremely painful, with my bladder seizing up every few minutes.
Went to the Mater for my initial cystoscopy and TURBT today. Arrived at the hospital at 6.30am and got into my theatre gear ready for the procedure. At around 9.30am , I was informed that the hospital had had an
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It’s been weeks since my referral and the hospital has finally triaged me for an appointment with the urology department at the Mater. We travelled to Brisbane on the 18th and stayed overnight at Mater Hill Motel.My appointment was at
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Had my appointment with the Urologist. Due to my initial reaction to the BCG and the fact that my cancer continues to spread, the urology team at Toowoomba Base Hospital have referred me to the Mater Hospital. I have some
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Well, it looks like I have another infection. I have been struggling with pain since my last cystoscopy and it’s been more than a week now. I visited my GP today and a dipstick test indicates that I have another
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On November 15th, 2022, I was back at the pre-admissions department of the hospital, preparing for another Rigid Cystoscopy. As I had been through the process before, it was pretty straight forward. On November 25th, 2022 I arrived at the
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Due to the reaction of my body to the BCG, the Urologist ceased all further treatment.I was then booked in for a full-body CT scan ust to check that the cancer hadn’t spread to any other organs in my stomach
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The next step on the journey was to start BCG treatment as quickly as possible.BCG is the same live culture used to treat Tuberculosis.The culture is injected directly into the bladder via a catheter. It sits in the bladder for
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In early September I had my first Rigid Cystoscopy which was performed under anaesthetic, so I had no knowledge of the procedure itself, thank goodness.While in there, they biopsied some suspicious polyps and sent them off to the lab for
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